Who has been with DU for more than 10 years?

[Martin Eden]

533. It doesn't matter whether or not they knew "for sure"

There were several reasons why any responsible public servant should have voted against giving GW Bush authority to invade Iraq:

PNAC agenda, and the intent to invade Iraq for reasons mostly unrelated to WMD

The obviously false marketing campaign to sell the war, which should have thrown up red flags that Bush couldn't be trusted

The unknown consequences and costs of invading & occupying Iraq (google the speech Bernie Sanders gave on the Senate floor October 2002, in opposition to the IWR)

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I would have supported a resolution that forced Saddam to readmit UN inspectors, but only if it contained a provision requiring another congressional vote before any military action was taken. The situation in Iraq needed to be resolved because 12 years of sanctions had taken a terrible toll on the Iraqi people, especially children.

However, I want to be perfectly clear about a couple more things:

The idea that the debilitated and surrounded country of Iraq posed a "grave and gathering threat" to the United States was simply not credible. Nor was the notion that Saddam was allied with al Qaeda and would give them WMD. Our intelligence agencies rejected that, yet it was a cornerstone of the Bush/Cheney case for war. Any legitimate case for war requires a legitimate case of self defense, or is an accordance with international law with UN approval. The Bush administration had no regard for the UN, evidenced by appointing John Bolton as the US rep. The only reason Bush went to the UN was political necessity.

If John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, et al seriously believed Bush would act in good faith or were fooled by him, they were indeed fools. Their only chance at redemption was in February & March 2002 when it was becoming clear that Bush was going to take us to war despite the UN inspectors being readmitted and given access to every site. They were already concluding the vast infrastructure necessary for the production of nuclear weapons did not exist in Iraq and they were asking for more time to finish their work.

Where was the leadership we desperately needed from John Kerry and Hillary Clinton on the eve of war when it was clear that Bush was not acting in good faith and was about to launch an invasion that violated UN authority as well as the intent of the IWR they voted for???

I saw this coming in October 2002. Ask anyone who was here at DU then, and ask them if they were surprised by it.